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McAnally's (The Community Pub) => Author Craft => Topic started by: Philliph on September 30, 2009, 10:42:52 PM

Title: What is the book?
Post by: Philliph on September 30, 2009, 10:42:52 PM
With the most uneventful ending you have ever read?

For me it was every book in the Wind On Fire Trilogy.

...This isn't a hate thread or anything, i just want to know if they have anything in common so future authors who view this thread don't make the same mistakes.

But i cant remember the ending to those books. just that it was extremely anticlimactic.

This thread was inspired by the movie The Forbidden Warrior.
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: Warden John Marcone on October 01, 2009, 07:22:22 PM
Uneventful end?  HP 4&5
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: Starbeam on October 01, 2009, 07:33:16 PM
Quote from: Warden John Marcone on October 01, 2009, 07:22:22 PM
Uneventful end?  HP 4&5

I don't think I'd say they were really uneventful.  Not like some books.  The most anticlimactic and obvious book ending I've read in a long time has got to be Da Vinci Code.  The entire book tries to steer you away from the obvious, which is there almost instantly, and is just no surprise in any way when it's revealed.  The Inheritance books are pretty bad, too.  Especially if you've read LotR or seen Star Wars, you can pretty much guess what'll happen.  And know that it will also be deus ex machina.  Same with the end of the Terry Goodkind series.
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: Aludra on October 01, 2009, 07:51:12 PM
Every book I can think of that I've read had some kind of final climactic event, wether or not it was predictable.  Except maybe F Scott Fitzgerald's stuff.  He tends to have much more plod-along very realistic to life type stories with youthful vibrant people who become old and so un-noteworthy as to stop writing about their terrible lives.

Which isn't to say I don't like his books, because sometimes I just want a change of pace and I enjoy his writing.
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on October 01, 2009, 08:01:27 PM
Probably Caleb Carr's truly terrible Killing Time.

Spoilering this in case anyone cares:
(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: Starbeam on October 01, 2009, 08:04:14 PM
Quote from: neurovore on October 01, 2009, 08:01:27 PM
Probably Caleb Carr's truly terrible Killing Time.

Spoilering this in case anyone cares:
(click to show/hide)

Wow.  That sounds like it's so bad I almost want to read it.
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: Warden John Marcone on October 01, 2009, 08:05:50 PM
...

there are books that bad?
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: Aludra on October 01, 2009, 08:06:19 PM
Quote from: neurovore on October 01, 2009, 08:01:27 PM
Probably Caleb Carr's truly terrible Killing Time.

Spoilering this in case anyone cares:
(click to show/hide)

To be honest, I don't really see the difference between the type of ending you described and the ending of The Giver.  There's no explanation in that either it just all goes blank.  So would you say The Giver also lacks a climactic ending?
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: Starbeam on October 01, 2009, 08:13:57 PM
Quote from: Warden John Marcone on October 01, 2009, 08:05:50 PM
...

there are books that bad?

Quite a few, and sometimes by pretty good authors.  Like Cujo by Stephen King.  Dunno bout anyone else, but I thought both the book and movie were absolutely horrible.  King himself loves them both, and in On Writing even said he wished he could remember writing it cause it must've been a fun ride.
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: Warden John Marcone on October 01, 2009, 08:14:51 PM
Quote from: Starbeam on October 01, 2009, 08:13:57 PM
Quite a few, and sometimes by pretty good authors.  Like Cujo by Stephen King.  Dunno bout anyone else, but I thought both the book and movie were absolutely horrible.  King himself loves them both, and in On Writing even said he wished he could remember writing it cause it must've been a fun ride.

I thought Cujo was pretty cool.
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh on October 01, 2009, 08:15:25 PM
Quote from: Aludra on October 01, 2009, 08:06:19 PM
To be honest, I don't really see the difference between the type of ending you described and the ending of The Giver.  There's no explanation in that either it just all goes blank.  So would you say The Giver also lacks a climactic ending?

I'm not familiar with it, I'm afraid.

I've thought of another one, though; Robert Gleason's Wrath of God.

(click to show/hide)
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: Aludra on October 01, 2009, 08:19:14 PM
Quote from: neurovore on October 01, 2009, 08:15:25 PM
I'm not familiar with it, I'm afraid.

I've thought of another one, though; Robert Gleason's Wrath of God.

(click to show/hide)
The Giver is an award winning children's book.  It's only like 90 pages or so.  Definitely worth the hour to 2 hours it'll take to read it.
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: Starbeam on October 01, 2009, 08:19:38 PM
Quote from: neurovore on October 01, 2009, 08:15:25 PM
I'm not familiar with it, I'm afraid.

I've thought of another one, though; Robert Gleason's Wrath of God.

(click to show/hide)
Holy cow.  I'm trying my hardest not to laugh out loud cause this office is silent.  But that's just...wow.

Quote from: Warden John Marcone on October 01, 2009, 08:14:51 PM
I thought Cujo was pretty cool.
I was about 13 when I read it.  Mother and kid stuck in a car cause of a rabid dog just didn't seem all that scary.  And the movie was one of 2 I can remember turning off and never finishing cause it was so boring.  The other was around the same time, Nightmare on Elm Street 6.
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: LizW65 on October 01, 2009, 08:30:13 PM
Several of PN Elrod's Vampire Files novels have very abrupt endings, but I wouldn't consider them anticlimactic.  I can't honestly think of anything I've read recently that fits that description.
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: meg_evonne on October 01, 2009, 09:43:12 PM
Quote from: neurovore on October 01, 2009, 08:01:27 PM
Probably Caleb Carr's truly terrible Killing Time.

Spoilering this in case anyone cares:
(click to show/hide)
Well, that's one way to settle your absolute last time to provide to the publisher.  LOL
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: Dr. Blood on October 01, 2009, 09:46:10 PM
I thought the worst ending of a series was Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson's Hunters of Dune and Sandworms of Dune.  I know they were supposedly finished from Frank's own outline, but man was that bad.
Title: Re: What is the book?
Post by: Philliph on October 02, 2009, 12:25:41 AM
Ahh, for those people who have read the original post i digress.

The wind on fire trilogy by author William Nicholson.
Although i started this to talk about the endings, his is a rather good idea. The author puts much detail into the surroundings, and in the second book he even writes about a few months or years where the main character was in a slave pin and if anyone had tried to escape they would kill a family member. or a whole family. There was so much potential for a climax that was all about war and intense fighting but, if i remember correctly, he didn't even write about it at all.
But, there were a lot of people who like the style. i just couldn't get into it...even though i willed myself to read through the whole series.
But this was a couple years ago.

My point is that the author put so much time into detail and great archetypes for the story that he forgot to make it interesting.

If any of you have read the Fall of Farsala Trilogy you'd know what i mean when i say that Hilari Bell knows how to moderate.

Action, lack of it, detail, humor, dialogue, and most of all an enthralling story that seems completely possible. I may be praising her too much but I know i could learn a few things from her.

Except for one thing. For all of her cool font styles and font size she DOUBLE SPACED! The heathen!  8)